Reuters reporting on how Myanmar's military planned its purge of the Rohingya was recognized with an Award of Excellence by The Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA)'s 25th annual SOPA Awards. In addition to the Award of Excellence in Human Rights Reporting, Reuters earned an additional five honorable mentions and two finalists nods from the competition.
Reuters reporters with deep expertise on Myanmar have exposed widespread military abuses against the Rohingya and democracy activists efforts to crush resistance in the country. Reuters revealed, for the first time, the military's secret planning behind the expulsion of nearly a million Rohingya in 2017, with new evidence showing the purge was long planned and was borne out of deep-seated racism and a determination to reduce the country's Muslim population.
Reuters earned honorable mentions for its reporting on the departure of human rights lawyers from Hong Kong (Human Rights Reporting), the hunt for justice for those killed as part of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs (Feature Writing), the Halloween disaster in Seoul, South Korea (Infographics), the assassination of Shinzo Abe (Breaking News) and how Chinese-built dams are depriving the Mekong River Delta of precious sediment (Reporting on the Environment).
Reuters had an additional two finalists in the Excellence in Explanatory Writing and Photography categories for Starving the Mekong and photojournalism capturing the protests and public unrest in Sri Lanka, respectively.
The SOPA Awards recognize the most outstanding journalists and publishers while supporting and defending a free press in Asia. Winners are selected from hundreds of entries submitted each year.
Read Reuters award-winning coverage on Reuters.com.
Media contact:
JJ Minder
jj.minder @ tr.com
